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Post by nate on Oct 5, 2006 6:40:04 GMT -5
okay now i'm back on my computer...at work...on my lunchbreak...blissfully pecking away at this old dusty keyboard. so brandon and i were on our one of our many trips to louisville last night when a thought occurred to me. brandon and i have very productive discussions and brainstorms on these trips by the way. anyway that's neither here nor there. but i thought that some people might be interested in the stories behind the songs. kind of our own little storie tellers in cyberspace. if you don't want to know....then stop reading now. i'm only going to do them one at a time because frankly, i don't like to type that much. some will be more detailed than others and some really don't have the juicy story that some people think they do. so again, if you have a really good story about what you "think" the song is about, then, by all means, stop reading now, and keep your story...it's probably better than mine. i guess the first song i'll start with is....drum roll please....tomorrow maybe. this was a fun song. it started with my guitar part. i was stuck on that particular pattern and was playing it quite a bit, especially when i was in fiji. one day i was riding the bus from the north end of the island down to the southern end for some snorkeling and what not and there was an old local on the bus that just captured my imagination. i don't know his name, where he was from, or really anything at all about him, except that he was an old fijian taking the morning bus to do whatever it was he does. so in my mind i just started to play out possibilities and that's how the lyrics came about. although, in the chorus...and this is really cool: "he can hold the thunder in his hand"....that's actually the one and only mr.craig hagan. because he holds the thunder in his hand at the beginning of kelani! that is the only line in the song that is not about the old fijian guy on the bus. i just added it because it was such an interesting thought. i just loved the idea of being able to hold thunder in your hand! hehehe and when i introduced this song to brandon and craig and told them how i heard it in my head, it all fell together in a matter of minutes. it was like we'd been playing the song for months. it was really cool. so that's just a little insight to that song. i hope you've enjoyed this chapter.
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Post by nate on Oct 5, 2006 11:52:00 GMT -5
okay, here's volume II. so just to tie into the "thunder in his hand" from tomorrow maybe, as you know, "kelani" starts with a little bit of a thunderish stormy kind of sound. well, kelani is probably one of my favorite songs. many of you know that i was living in hawaii before i moved back to the good 'ol ky. i taught so many hawaiian kids while i was there and one of the most interesting things about them were their names. hawaiians are very proud, not only of their heritage, but of the significance of their names and language. in hawaiian, kelani means "from the heavens". so basically the songs is about a girl, whose name is very significant, having so much tragedy and loss and really just an overall crappy run with the hand that life has dealt her. BUT, as you get to the chorus and realize that even though she has been dealt such a crappy hand, she realizes the importance of life and that it's up to her to make the best of it. and that's where kelani came from. i wrote this song shortly after i got back from hawaii the second time. ...and no i wasn't writing about personal stuff. this was just a story played out in my head. thanks for reading.
nate
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Post by basstravels on Oct 5, 2006 12:31:33 GMT -5
I think I'll tag on here a bit too..
Nate and I had been jamming together for awhile, had a covers to originals ratio of about 10:1. I'm not sure what our first original we ever played together was, but I think it was Mardis Gras.
Anyway, we're over at his old place next to the capital, playing some different tunes and having a good time. I don't think Nate really introduced this song at all, he just started playing and I listened through most of the intro. I started playing some counterpoint to his intro part, which remains through today. When he dropped into the main part, I had this experience where I just heard my part in my head -- it was right there, I just had to discover it.. In between the lyrics I fit in this melodic lead part which evolved into the current song.
It's been a favorite ever since then.. -BT
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Post by nate on Oct 5, 2006 14:41:22 GMT -5
yo b - thanks for the reply. i see that there are a few people checking this out, but nobody responds...i'm feelin' your pain now. maybe i should re-post under whining! heheh. or maybe i should just leave the songs a mystery?
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Post by natdaddy on Oct 5, 2006 16:02:13 GMT -5
i am givin it all I got It is just hard to always have something witty to say
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Post by nate on Oct 6, 2006 6:33:54 GMT -5
i don't really care what you say as long as you get our friend there on the left up here as much as possible!!! hehehe
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jessie
Junior Member
Posts: 82
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Post by jessie on Oct 6, 2006 7:49:02 GMT -5
I've been reading them all, and I think that it's great to be telling some of the stories. Keep em coming... even if it's just little insights to bits and peices of songs! I haven't commented back yet because I can't think of anything to say other than 'awesome'!! And, since I don't have an avatar like Nat's, I figured it would be a rather pointless post.... like this one.... but, hey, at least you know people are reading them and appreciating them!
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Post by basstravels on Oct 6, 2006 10:10:22 GMT -5
It's just weird seeing how the views continue to increase but people don't message. I don't think the 3-4 people who have posted in this thread have read it 12+ times, lots of people just lurk.
Ah well, whining is for another thread!
Cheers -B
PS Don't forget to check out Fran's offer for some home cooked 4th meal (aka breakfast at 2-3 am) after the show tonight. Yum yum!
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Post by natdaddy on Oct 6, 2006 14:11:52 GMT -5
anxiously waiting for volume III so i will have something to talk about you bunch of whiners!!! haha
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Post by nate on Oct 16, 2006 10:52:36 GMT -5
okay...volume III nat - "beer song" so as many of you know, brandon and i headed west this summer on vacation. b-was heading to oregon to move some of his things and to visit with his wife. i was heading in search of times long forgotten. so brandon and i loaded up the bandwagon with everything we could fit in it...including but not limited to a 130 lb great dane and enough strohs beer to kill most small mammals. brandon and i were like modern day knights sitting at the round table discussing pretty much everything from music to music....for 13 hours. so as you can imagine we got a lot accomplished. most of my songs are inspired from my travels and people i meet along the way, so i knew this trip would be fruitful as far as song writing was concerned. i had two finished and a third started by the time we got to south dakota! anyway, none of which was the song that i'm supposed to be writing about, so i'll get to it. brandon had suggested that we needed a party song. an anthem of sorts that cranks up the energy level and gets the good vibes flowin'. a song where people can grab a beer or four, toast their friends, put all worries aside and just have some fun. so beer song was born. i just happened to be sitting in my buddy's living room enjoying my breakfast (cold stohs in great for breakfast by the way!) and beer song just started playing in my head. "i think it's time for a beer" really were the first coherent words that i uttered that morning. but you also have to understand the relativity of "morning". i had just woken up. the song pretty much wrote itself. i had it completely finished before i got to the bottom of my second beer. some songs are just like that, though. if i try to write a song, a lot of times it won't work out. so i just try some ideas and see if the song will present itself to me. it's a lot like fishing. sometimes i'll do a whole lot of fishing, but not a lot of catching! and then sometimes the fishing is pretty good. so that was the birth of beer song. there are no hidden analogies or symbols. it is what it is, and i hope that you all enjoy it.
take care and enjoy the day! as for me...."well i think it's time for a beer!"
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Post by lindsey on Oct 16, 2006 11:07:11 GMT -5
I absolutely love that song and you're right it brings a lot of energy to the crowd. Keep up the great work! You are really talented. I wish I could write music!!
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Post by natdaddy on Oct 16, 2006 11:54:11 GMT -5
Well it was good to see Vol III was my favorite song. Still 3 days later sitiing here at work, and running through my head is " I think it's time for a beer"
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Post by basstravels on Oct 16, 2006 14:52:05 GMT -5
My $0.02:
I think Nate pretty much covered my role in this one, from a delivery room perspective.
However, after Nate brought the song back and we were jamming at the studio, I just heard these stops in it. At the time Nate was playing through solid and I said.. hey let's have these stop/starts... they really fit... and Craig started putting in some killer fills between... so there it is. The song was really a stream of consciousness thing to begin, then the music came the same way... I love it.
-the caffiend
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Post by nate on Oct 16, 2006 14:52:45 GMT -5
thank you lindsey. i think that's the nicest thing that you've said to me on the message board! all joking aside, i really do appreciate that and i'm glad that you all like the song. we've got some new originals in our pocket that are just waiting for the right time to be introduced so stay tuned.
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Post by lindsey on Oct 16, 2006 14:54:24 GMT -5
Hey, there are times that I can be nice!!!
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